As you might have noticed, I put this blog in hibernation while I focused on finishing a couple of major projects. However, now that those projects are winding down, I hope to be posting here more frequently. One of the big pieces of news on my end is that I will be taking over the position of Coordinating Editor of In Media Res from Avi Santo. ... read more »

The New Everyday, a MediaCommons Project, invites proposals for a special cluster on

Notes, Lists, and Everyday Inscriptions

The grocery list: scribbled on the back of last month’s electricity bill, or stored on the Treo, where it’s conveniently organized by supermarket aisle number. The to-do list: filling the pages of a breast-pocket notepad, or scrawled in bleeding ink on the back of your hand. That minor epiphany that struck on the subway: transcribed to a Moleskin, or translated into a Voice Memo on the iPhone. ... read more »

We are thrilled today to unveil The New Everyday, an experiment in “middle-state publishing” being undertaken here at MediaCommons as part of a two-year project undertaken by the New York Visual Culture Working Group, housed at NYU and funded by its Humanities Initiative. The project is launching with a cluster edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff considering the murder of Jorge Steven López Mercado; the pieces that form this cluster are open for discussion, and are intended to be seen, both collectively and individually, as remaining somewhat “in process.” We hope that you’ll join the discussion within this cluster, and that you’ll consider curating a future cluster as well. ... read more »

It’s perhaps a tiny bit ironic to be launching this particular new MediaCommons Press project on the Ides of March, but nonetheless: we here at MediaCommons are thrilled to unveil the open review experiment being conducted here on behalf of Shakespeare Quarterly, in conjunction with the journal’s forthcoming special issue, “Shakespeare and New Media.” Special issue guest editor Katherine Rowe has brought together four fantastic articles plus three review essays, each considering the impact of ... read more »

I am very excited to announce a new feature on In Media Res that allows users to offer feedback on how IMR posts are being used (for research, in classrooms, for general edification, etc.).

On every post page underneath the video field, readers will find a FEEDBACK form (you must be logged in to fill out the form, though not to view the results). Once logged in, members can let curators know whether or not their post has been useful for their research, has been cited in a publication, has been used as part of a classroom activity, has been thought provoking, or, if there are structural/organizational aspects of the post that might be improved upon in order to make it more effective.

IMR members can also continue to engage directly with curator posts through the comment field at the bottom right of every page. ... read more »

I’m taking advantage of today’s palindromic date (01022010, which is kinda nifty) to send a brief message with warm wishes for the new year to all of the members of the MediaCommons community.

2009 was an exciting year for us — we launched our user profile system, which we hope to develop into a research-oriented social network bringing together scholars across media studies related fields, and we launched MediaCommons Press with the open peer review of my own book project, Planned Obsolescence. We’ve got more exciting projects forthcoming in 2010, so we hope you’ll get involved.

Here are some brief notes about adding publications to the MediaCommons publications database and having them appear on your profile.

1. There are two ways to add a publication. Both are in the submenu that appears when you click “Edit” while viewing your profile. You can either import XML or tab-delimited files in formats like Bibtex (“Import”), or you can enter information manually (“Form”).

2. If it is your first time loading publications, you may need to take an additional step and link your author record to your profile. Author records can be found here: ... read more »